Compliments
by Mystical Authoress
Summary: Christmas fic for Bite the Dust. Kai Suwabara can't figure out why Monica is being down, and decides to ask Meister Kirisaki about it.


**Author note: I do not own Yakitate! Japan. **

**This fic is a belated Christmas gift for Bite the Dust, who requested this oneshot to be written. Also, this will be a bit of a sibling fic to 'Closer,' another oneshot I will put up soon.**

**Also: Bite the Dust, I apologize for the lateness of posting this fic, due to things that kept me extremely busy in the past few days. Please...don't...flame...for lateness...**

**Warning: MoniKai, possible spoilers for the manga/anime**

**Constructive Criticism would be great, and I hope that you read, review and enjoy! Thanks!**

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**Compliments**

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Kai Suwabara started to notice that something was wrong. Specifically, something was wrong with girlfriend.

Unfortunately, he had no idea what it was about, no matter how much he tried to ask her about it.

So, he thought he would ask who he thought would be the most knowledgeable about romantic relationships-none other than Meister. The samurai was glad that he could ask Meister during the week-long Christmas trip to the beach with all the other lovely co-workers.

"So...she's just been feeling down lately?" The two sat beside each other at the dock, looking out towards the ocean as they conversed about the situation.

"Yeah," The samurai responded, nodding a bit. "I can't figure out what's wrong with her. I've bought her all the junk food possible, spent time with her...I don't get what's wrong. I've tried talking to her, but she doesn't really seem like in the mood to talk about whatever is bugging her..."

"Hm." Meister paused for a moment. "Suwabara-san, do you ever give her any compliments?"

"Compliments?" The samurai looked completely confused at this. "What are compliments?"

Meister just stared at him blankly for a moment. _Goodness, he doesn't even know what compliments are..._

He cleared his throat, before speaking. "Compliments are basically positive things you would say to a person about that person. For example, me telling you that you have, um, good fighting skills with the katana."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. What I'm trying to say is...have you ever given her any compliments? Said any nice things about her? Because, well, girlfriends-all people in general, really-like compliments a lot."

"Oh." The samurai took time to think. Meister hoped that the samurai had given Monica at least one or two...

"Yeah." Kai spoke, nodding a little. "A lot, actually, now that I think about it."

"Oh." This surprised Meister a little, and it made him wonder a bit... "And...what do you compliment her about?"

There was a moment of silence. And then...

"...Her hands."

Another awkward moment of silence ensued, and Meister was extremely unsure of whether he heard the other say what he just said correctly, or if he misheard something...

"Pardon?"

"Her hands," Suwabara repeated, eyes glistening with awe. "They're the most beautiful things in existence-surely the mark of a true artisan!"

"..." Meister was really unsure of what to say at first, but then he managed to figure out something. "Are her hands the _only_ things you compliment about her?"

"..." It was Suwabara's turned to be really unsure of what to say, but the samurai managed an answer faster than Meister did. "Yes."

"I see." The older man took a deep breath, before continuing to speak. "Suwabara-san, if you compliment her about only _one _thing about her, she's going to think that you like her only because of her hands. And I'm sure that you like her for other reasons other than her hands, right?"

"Um...Yes..." The samurai looked embarrassed at this. The older one felt almost a bit sorry for him, to have a lack of experience and to be _completely clueless _about the dating game. It didn't help that the poor guy had grown up knowing nothing but baking and sword-fighting, either.

"Well then, just compliment her about other nice things about her-_not _just her hands." Meister concluded, nodding once. "And also...don't do what I did with my tenth ex-girlfriend." The last few words slipped out before he could stop himself.

Suwabara raised an eyebrow. "What _did _you do with your tenth ex-girlfriend? Did you_ harm_ her?"

Meister cringed, seeing the glint of malice in the samurai's glare-a sign that he was ready to kill him on the spot if needed. "N-no, I didn't! I just...well...I threw her into a dumpster by accident."

He gave Meister a stare of disbelief. The older man couldn't help but mentally face-palm himself as he felt his face heat up from underneath his mask. Thank goodness _no one_ could see his now-embarrassed facial expression...He figured it would be best to explain the situation and keep the story short to spare himself of embarrassment (and to prevent himself from being cut down by the samurai sitting with him).

"Erm, it's a long story, really...but I saved her life in the process-otherwise she would have been run over by a motorcyclist..."

"Oh." Suwabara figured it probably wouldn't be a good idea to pry into Meister's past love life, and instead focused on what needed to be done. "Thank you."

"It's no problem. And-" Meister winced slightly as he concluded speaking. "Don't do what I did with the tenth ex-girlfriend. You'll regret it greatly, even if you do try to apologize and explain why you did such a thing."

"Understood."

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Monica was very confused by the next day. Compliments were everywhere-literally.

_Your smile is beautiful._

_You are very pretty._

_You have wondrous skills as a patissier._

_Your candy sculptures are absolutely amazing._

These were only a few of the multitude of compliments that Suwabara kept leaving everywhere in his own handwriting-probably because he was too scared to tell it to her aloud. Monica honestly thought it was all touching, very touching-and for once, the compliments weren't just about her hands, either.

So...she gave him a kiss as soon as she saw him, and unfortunately the poor samurai was utterly confused by as of _why _he was being smothered with affection.

Meister couldn't help but grin when seeing the little scene between them-_Problem solved, _he figured. As long as things were alright between them, things were going to be okay...

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**Author note: Again, Bite the Dust, I apologize for the lateness (and you could probably figure that I gave up at around the end and I apologize for that, too). Feel free to flame (or leave constructive criticism). Thanks for reading! **


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